JUPITER, Fla. – No one wanted Fernando Tatis a few years ago. Now he is stepping into the monster void created when Alex Rodriguez had to be dropped from the Dominican Republic’s team in the WBC because of a hip injury.

Along the way, Tatis will see a lot of his Met teammates. There are 16 Mets in the tournament.

“It’s great to be able to play for my country for the first time,” said Tatis, who met with Dominican GM Stan Javier yesterday morning at Met camp.

“It’s going to be exciting for me, my family and my kids. It’s amazing how far I’ve been able to come in the past year. I mean, I was out of baseball two years ago. This is like a dream come true.”